Post by waitingfornextyear on Jul 1, 2013 14:30:18 GMT -5

I've also seen the DSOTM tour and The Wall. All are amazing. I'll take any version of Floyd I can get on the farm. Especially if it's 2014!

EDIT: to add a side story about this show...I remember the tickets said something like "show starts at 8pm sharp" and we thought that was odd, but we had eaten so much corn, we were just entering the venue at 8 and heard the first few notes of the first song and just sprinted up the stairs to our seats. So young and dumb...

Post by wolfmanjess on Aug 5, 2013 21:58:08 GMT -5

Again, why does associating one symbol with a bunch of other symbols that he views negatively mean that he's not portraying the first symbol negatively?

His response was very clear, he put it there because the Star of Davis is officially recognized as the national symbol of Israel who he actually has issues with. This is a position I am actually pretty sympathetic with.

Post by Delicious Meatball Sub on Aug 5, 2013 22:04:52 GMT -5

Lets try this another way, if I have a huge juicy steak for dinner, does the fact that I also had a side salad make me a vegetarian?

Lol, this is funny only because it is not analogous whatsoever to what we are discussing. I think what you are trying to say is that just because Roger Waters "doesn't like religion" (eating the salad), he's not necessarily a vegetarian (anti-Judaism). The problem is, your "steak" in the example is him hating a bunch of shiz that many people view negatively also. And I don't think hating Christianity, Islam, Communism, Money, etc. means you all of the sudden aren't anti-Judaism.

Really, all it means is that Roger Waters doesn't like a bunch of things, and one of them is Judaism.

GRANTED - he's welcome to his opinion. And I'd still welcome him enthusiastically at Bonnaroo. But for him to act surprised that someone would be offended is kinda naive. He tossed up a Star of David with a bunch of smybols that he openly advocates against.

Ah I see, you were commenting on Waters reaction, not that of the other commenters on this thread.

I get his surprise that from all that people are calling him an anti-Semite, rather than something more all-encompassing.

Post by wolfmanjess on Aug 5, 2013 22:30:22 GMT -5

His response was very clear, he put it there because the Star of Davis is officially recognized as the national symbol of Israel who he actually has issues with. This is a position I am actually pretty sympathetic with.

Yeah, its an easy response, and possibly or even likely a truthful one. But what can he reasonably expect when he makes a visual display which negatively connotes symbols that represent a large group of people?

He put a cross up there as well, I think by and large people going to see The Wall understand what he is trying to convey, and none of it seems anti-Semitic really. It had already been that way for three years now, and this was the first complaint I ever heard of.

Post by sleepy on Aug 5, 2013 23:21:58 GMT -5

As a Jew, I'm pretty sensitive to anything that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic; I have seen The Wall twice, and never once did I get the impression that anything in the show was even remotely anti-Semitic (or anti-Muslim/Christian, for that matter) - and I think anyone who does view it that way is really not viewing the imagery in its proper context. Much of the show is (in my interpretation) about the many walls we put up that alienate us from our fellow man, and how poisonous they really are to us in the long run. That includes money, nationality, military action, political ideologies - and yes, even religion. These are things that are meant to unite us, but often only serve to divide us. I think it's very dangerous when any group of people is considered exempt from criticism for their actions, and I also think it's dangerous when criticism of the dividing nature of ideologies in general is mistaken for an attack on a specific ideology or its followers.

If you really think using the Star of David in a not-so-positive light makes Waters a bigot, then you might also interpret the line "are there any queers in the theatre tonight? get them up against the wall!... That one looks Jewish! And that one's a coon!" as being homophobic, racist, or anti-Semitic - but it's not. As a rock opera, the story focuses largely on the conflict and struggles between the characters (as most any compelling story would), and at that point he's simply taking his turn playing the antagonist. But in no way does that mean he's endorsing those views, any more than that makes the guy who played Hitler in Downfall a Nazi.